


impromptu tradition

by EmmaLuLuChu



Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: Childhood Memories, Childhood Trauma, Christmas Fluff, Flashbacks, Gen, Holiday Traditions, Hurt/Comfort, Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:53:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27830326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmmaLuLuChu/pseuds/EmmaLuLuChu
Summary: “The first time I looked at myself in a mirror after the accident was that December. I. . . didn’t like what I saw, and I did something I’m still not too proud of.”It's the Fisher's first Christmas at the Addison Apartments, and it looks like they may go this year without a tradition of theirs until Larry comes home with Sal after school one day.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 22





	impromptu tradition

**Author's Note:**

> me: oh, youtube recommended that JSE playthrough of Sally Face. wouldn't hurt to watch it again-  
> *Steve Gabry and Feather Fall Studios proceed to burst in and deck me in the face and pile drive me to the floor*  
> me, softly from the ground: holy shit dude. *stands up*
> 
> announcer: they're standing back up folks, and- OH MY GOD! IT'S CHRISTMAS WITH A STEEL CHAIR!

A picture was worth a thousand words or so people said, and never was it more true than with Sal’s family photos. Well, more of a lack thereof, ever since he was eight years old.

One week the walls of their old home in Jersey were covered in pictures galore, then the next more than half of them were gone and they never became as big of a collection ever again. There was one exception that had come to mean a lot for their small family, it only ever regularly had Sal in it and it always made his dad happy every year to take the picture. The last one they ever did in New Jersey was when Sal was fourteen and before they knew they would be moving just two month later, and early on Dad had told Sal not to stress about going to take the picture, he'd be fine without it this year and it honestly made Sal feel a little empty. The pictures were still well treasured and they made sure to swap out some of their usual photos as the time came to enjoy them for a little while, and the empty feeling got worse as Sal realized their tradition was. . . dead.

That is, until Larry came home the week before winter break and saw them for the first time.

“Dude, why do you have so many pictures with Santa?”

Sal stopped taking off his outerwear, looking over at where Larry was closely looking at one of said Santa photos. “Oh, it’s just a tradition me and Dad had back in New Jersey. Even after I stopped believing I still did the picture because that’s what Dad said he wanted for Christmas every year.”

“You did better than I ever did, as soon as I learned to say no I didn’t do anymore Santa pictures, mainly because my mom used to insist on some sort of stuffy outfit I hated to wear. You look comfortable in your photos though,” Larry smiled, pointing at a spot in the photo, “[Cool hat](https://luluwritesthings.tumblr.com/post/636352079959621632) too.”

Sal walked over to Larry’s side, nodding as he looked at the picture, he was eleven in it and had decided that year to put holiday stickers on his prosthetic that you could barely see underneath the silly hat on his head.

“Yeah, I still have it somewhere. I tried to wear it for outside stuff too, but. . .” It was easy to imply that Sal already got enough stares in his daily life. He didn’t need anything else to attract even more eyes. Larry didn’t push though, nodding and glancing at the rest of the pictures.

“I guess the hat is something your Dad wanted you to wear?”

Sal shook his head.

“That was actually kind of my fault.”

“What do you mean by ‘your fault’?”

Sal gestured for Larry to follow him, bringing him over to a small end table next to their sparsely decorated tree, an old plate Sal had painted back in kindergarten with _Santa's cookies_ written on it was sitting there inbetween two framed photos. The smaller one had a maskless smiling Sal, the slightly larger one had a freshly masked Sal and the first appearance of the hat. Larry chuckled next to him,

“What cute Sally Faces.”

Sal playfully elbowed Larry, picking up the larger one so they could look at it closer.

“The first time I looked at myself in a mirror after the accident was that December. I. . . didn’t like what I saw, and I did something I’m still not too proud of.”

-

_Sal didn’t mean to look in the mirror. He had been a little scared about doing it since the hospital, enough so that Dad had to brush his hair for him and let him brush his teeth at the kitchen sink instead of the bathroom. He had done a good job avoiding the mirror so far when he had to go in there for other things, but Dad had gone to the store for food and Sal thought he could clean the house a little before he got back. Then he had dropped one of the really fancy plates and one of the shards cut his arm and he couldn’t find the bandaids anywhere else so he went in the bathroom and he didn’t remind himself to look away from the mirror and-_

_He couldn’t look away from his reflection. It was so unfamiliar and wrong, and though he kept blinking and pinching himself until his eyes watered up it wouldn’t go away. His hands shook as he grabbed at his shirt, the light sting of the cut fading away as a horrible feeling began to build in his chest._

_Sal_ **_hated_ ** _what he saw._

_He only looked away to leave, but came back very quickly to follow a thought that popped up in his head. The doctors had said not to follow these ‘intrusive thoughts’ but Sal didn’t care. All that mattered was that he hated what he saw in the mirror and it wouldn’t go away and_ **_‘cut it’_ ** _sounded like the right thing to do._

**_kwish-kwish-shk_ **

_The sound rang in Sal’s ears, only interrupted by the ticklish brush of hair on his shoulders and feet, it was all he was really aware of until his hand couldn’t find any more long strands of hair. Only then did he find the ability to focus on the mirror again and meet his reflection once more._

_His hair was sticking out at weird lengths now, in two spots he could almost see his scalp, and the right side of his head looked especially weird since he couldn’t see that side as well now. He looked down at the bathroom floor, it looked like a stuffed animal had been skinned and left there. It was so much hair. He had only ever seen a much smaller amount on the ground before, like when he had tried to cut his hair once in the first grade at school and when the teacher called home the only one who had been super upset was Mom-_

_The scissors dropped from Sal’s hand, barely missing his foot as he looked back up and realized what he had done. Mom had always loved his hair, saying the color was her favorite part. Now she was gone and Sal ruined Mom’s favorite thing._

_“Oh. . . oh no. . .”_

_He bolted out of the bathroom and ran straight for his bedroom. He ran into the closet, slammed the door shut and began to cry._

_Sal cried and cried until his throat hurt really bad and he had to pull the mask off because there were a lot of boogers suddenly inside of it. He didn’t know how long he had stayed in there until he heard frantic shouting and footsteps, already beginning to cry again as he realized Dad was home and would see what Sal had done. In no time the closet door was opened and Dad found Sal, looking scared as he stared down at him._

_“Sal? Buddy. . . jesus your hair. . .”_

_Sal hiccuped and buried his head into his knees._

_“I’m sorry Dad! I-I looked at a mirror and. . . and I hate myself! I hate myself and I wanted it to change so I got scissors and cut it all off but then I remembered Mom loved my hair and now I hate myself even more!”_

_He cried more as Dad stayed quiet, afraid of how angry he was. Sal wasn’t sure what Dad was gonna do, so he jumped when he felt a hand put itself on his head._

_“Sal, it’s okay. Why do you hate yourself?”_

_Sal peeked out of his arms at Dad, sniffling._

_“I. . . look wrong. I wanted it to be different, so I cut my hair. . . and now you’re mad and Mom is too.”_

_Dad gave a sigh, moving down to the ground with Sal, “I know buddy. . . I don’t like myself much either. Your Mom wouldn’t want us to think like that though. She’d want us to be happy with ourselves. I know you can’t just. . . start immediately liking yourself this very second, but we both have to try for her. Okay?”_

_Sal gave a small nod, sniffling more as Dad’s hand rubbed over his head and he gave another sigh._

_“I wish you had done this tomorrow instead. . . I wanted to take you to see Santa tonight.”_

_“Oh. . . will Santa say I was naughty because I cut my hair?”_

_Dad shook his head, “Of course not, Santa knows you’re a nice boy. Just because a kid is having trouble doesn’t always mean they’re naughty. Let's get you cleaned up, then we’ll see if there’s something here you can wear to cover your head.” He helped Sal stand up, holding his shoulders for a second before pulling him into a hug._

_“I love you buddy.”_

_“I love you too Dad.”_

-

“So, was that the only hat in your old house?”

Sal shook his head. “We didn’t have anything. The place where we used to go to take the picture was a marketplace, so there wasn’t even a clothing store nearby and the photos ended at seven. Dad tore through the area trying to find something so I didn’t just have a scarf wrapped around my head, and he found this and a penguin one in the same style. I couldn’t choose between them since I still felt bad about the hair so he just bought both.”

The snowman hat smiled at him from the picture, helping replace Sal’s lack of one due to his prosthetic. Despite how the hat came to him, Sal always had a soft spot for it.

“When the next Christmas came around, I wanted to wear it again and Dad didn’t care. Then the next one I thought about using the penguin one but Dad said it’d be fun if I stuck with the same one so. . . it became a tradition.”

Larry nodded. “That’s actually really sweet dude. Yeah it’s sad why you had to wear it, but you made something good out of it.” He looked at Sal and smiled, “Doesn’t surprise me, you have a way to make the best out of shitty situations.”

Sal laughed and set the frame down. “You have to learn how to do that when your life's a tragedy.”

They stood there for a moment, taking in the sight, Sal hesitating for half a second before speaking up, "It's weird knowing I'm not going to take the photo. It's the only 'normal' thing we did after Mom died. I always knew I'd see Dad smile, and we would pick out the new frame together, and I didn't care if anybody was staring at me because of my face or the hat or how old I was."

Larry gave a hum of understanding. "I get what you mean, not about the Santa picture but the feeling of having a plain old regular thing to do. I like my music, but I know every Sunday Mom'll put on her music and clean the place and sing along, so I go to help and sing with her too. I never know the words well but I know it makes her happy." Sal gave a hum of agreement.

They both stared at the display a little longer before they went to Sal’s room, spending about an hour attempting to do homework before inevitably they got tired and did everything they could not to do it. That resulted in Sal digging around to find an old gear boy cartridge, but instead he struck gold.

Larry had cackled once he saw the snowman and penguin hats Sal had found, eagerly asking for the penguin and immediately putting it on. Sal followed suit with the snowman hat and they had a good laugh, and then he noticed a look in Larry’s eye that meant he had an idea.

-

Christmas morning went by quickly, it was normal for Henry and Sal now. His son wasn’t a frugal or demanding kid, and Henry was just happy to have a moment of peace and plans to have Christmas dinner with Lisa and her son Larry. The apartment itself had been a gift, while it had hurt being forced to leave New Jersey, this place had been good for Sal so far.

All the presents were opened and their cinnamon rolls were all gone, all they had to do now was get ready and head downstairs to the Johnson’s.

“Alright Sal, let’s get this cleaned up-”

“Wait Dad, I have one more gift for you.”

Henry was surprised at the declaration, watching as Sal scrambled to pull an unseen gift from behind the couch that was handed to him.

“What? I didn’t ask for anything else.”

“I know, just open it please?”

Henry pulled the red wrapping paper off, raising an eyebrow as he found a box for a photo frame. He opened the top and slide out the frame inside, pausing as he looked at the picture inside of it.

It was a Santa picture. It looked like it was at some mall, the set-up and Santa had a much more polished look compared to the farmer’s market back in Jersey. The Santa had somebody sitting on each leg, on the left was Larry of all people giving a reluctant smile and wearing a. . . penguin hat. On the right, where he always sits for this picture, was Sal wearing the snowman hat he wore every year for this picture. Both boys were wearing a matching holiday sweater set as well, covered with tinsel and bells and an applique that matched their respective hat.

“Do you. . . like it? Larry saw the Santa photos, then I found the hats in my room and he had Lisa help us with finding a place to take the picture and she bought us the sweaters. I tried to pay for the picture myself but she wouldn’t let me so I got the frame. I know you said I didn’t have to do the pictures anymore, but Larry helped me see that I didn't like the idea of losing this tradition.”

Henry finally looked up at Sal, taking in his nervous posture and the earnest look in his eyes, and smiled.

“Thank you Sal, this means a lot to me. I love it.” He could see in Sal’s eyes that he was smiling, pulling his son into a brief hug, “I assume Lisa has her own copy?”

“Yeah, it’s the first Santa photo Larry’s done since he was four, she was really excited to have him willingly do one.”

“I can’t wait to see it. Speaking of, let’s clean up and head down to see them.”

The picture was indeed the first thing Lisa showed to them, the frame covered in wintery decorations and an exaggerated bow. Larry only rolled his eyes at his Mom’s excitement, and they quickly went on to do their own small gift exchange between the families. After lunch they did a jigsaw puzzle and played charades, and after dinner they settled down to watch a double-feature of _Gremlins_ and _Scrooged._

It would become a new Christmas tradition for the Fishers and Johnsons, along with a shared Santa photo with the signature snowman and penguin hats on each of the boy’s heads.

**Author's Note:**

> for those that saw the link and clicked it: that is me, i only scratched out my face bcs i wanted y'all to focus on the hat lmao. i just got rid of it this year bcs i'm pretty sure a spider touched it or smthn :')
> 
> uhm. i did not expect myself to write any fanfic for this. super nice change of pace tho, and in advance i want to apologize for everybody going to click onto my profile for more Sally Face stuff only to be met with a shit-ton of not-Sally Face stuff lmao. also to the people i know who subscribed to me for the Voltron i've done, i'm super sorry i swear you'll see some more of that stuff soon!!
> 
> also if anybody asks if this is an au or canon:
> 
> it's whatever
> 
> stay safe, love y'all


End file.
